Samkeopsal day

 

 Mar. 3 became Pork Belly Day or Samkyeopsal Day, which was coined by people after noticing Sam means the number 3 and at the same time it is the first syllable of samkyepsal that means pork belly in Korean. I think people just started this practice as a prank in the first place. On Mar. 3, this year, we went to local restaurant specializing in pork belly dish to enjoy.

The pork belly, which was sold on March 3, last year, was a product that had more fat than average, causing anger from consumers. The distribution industry explained that some products had a lot of fat mixed in due to a large volume of supplies on the occasion of Samkyeopsal Day. Samkeopsal usually refers to the part of pork belly attached to the ribs of pigs. It is called samkeopsasl because the fat present in the meaty part looks like three layers.

The reason why pork belly tastes delicious is because of its rich fat. As it is grilled, it is grilled like frying the outside thanks to a lot of pork oil from the meat. Excluding moisture, about 60% of the total weight of pork belly is said to be fat. The part that looks like lean meat is also more fat than protein.

Because of a lot of fat, people with sensitive stomachs may experience severe diarrhea after eating. As you can see when you grill the pork belly while wiping off the oil with a kitchen towel at home, there is a lot of oil coming out of the pork belly.

People used to think that pork belly helps removal of inhaled dust through the lungs. However, there is actually no sufficient medical basis for this belief. However, research has shown that pork has the effect of detoxifying and discharging heavy metals. A certain effect can be expected from miners exposed to heavy metal dust, but it is difficult to expect an effect on general dust other than heavy metals.

Pork was not very popular in Korea until the 1970s, and there were few forms of grilling and eating. At that time, there were many places where native pigs were fed leftover or manure, so the smell was so bad that they could not be grilled as it was, and the only form was boiling, steaming, and seasoning. In order to stabilize meat prices, the Park Chung-hee administration banned the export of in 1978. Then high-quality pork was released to the market, and it became popular due to the supply of propane gas, the meat season, and the increase in Korean beef prices.

The restaurant we went to on Samkeopsal day this year was ‘Sotgogip’ where it was served with bean sprout, kimchi and water parsley on the lid of big pot shaped pan (sot ttukung). This is not conventional way to cook samkeopsal, but such practice is very popular in Jeju Island. In this recipe or kimchi-samkeopsal, the greasiness of pork belly due to the high fat content is neutralized by freshness of parsley and spicy taste of kimchi thus I think this dish will gain more traction and popularity.